Acceptable Leering
by TheOneThatStayed
Summary: When Claudia and Steve have to question Todd, under a new identity, in reference to their mission, both Claudia and Todd have trouble pretending that they don't know each other for the sake of Todd's cover.


In a small town in Wisconsin stood an extremely nervous looking 23 year old man across from two agents, one a man trying to hold his temper in and another woman staring somewhat desperately trying to explain the situation with her eyes to the young man.

"So Mr. Thomson, you say you saw nothing odd since you started working for Mr. Green."

"Yep, I uh try to keep my head down." Jinks narrowed his eyes at him, noticing he was staring right at Claudia.

"Have you smelled Fudge when there was no fudge?" His eyes were pulled back to Jinks after he asked that question.

"Uh no. Why?" Claudia decided to intervene at this moment.  
"Hey Jinksy, obviously Todd doesn't know what is-" Jinks interrupts her mid-sentence.

"His name is Matt." Her eyes widen and she starts to stammer. Todd jumps in to attempt to fix the situation that was evolving.

"Well I've been told I look like a Todd before." Steve glares at "Matt" before sighing.

"Well I guess you've told us everything you know, if we have any more questions we'll contact you." Todd nods as the agents walk out, Claudia looking behind herself and giving him a sympathetic smile.

Claudia and Steve walk to their rental car and get in. Before Steve starts the car he turns to look at Claudia, who was strangely distracted.

"Hey are you ok?" She turns to look at him slightly dazed in the eyes and nods. "Are you sure, I mean that guy was kind of leering at you."

Her eyebrows rise before rolling her eyes.

"He was not leering; you were grilling the guy on something he knew nothing about." Jinks starts to protest. "You know you were. Anyways let's just go and talk to the next guy on our list." Jinks stares at her for a few seconds feeling like she was almost lying to him. He shakes off the feeling and drives away.

After exhausting all of their suspects they plan out a new strategy over dinner. They were going to go and revisit everyone separately and see if they could get anymore leads. They started splitting the list, when they got to Matt Thomson, Claudia quickly interjected.

"Why don't I go and talk to him?" Jinks looked dubiously at her.

"I'm not sure Claude he may not have been leering at you but you were acting super weird."

"Dude I was just spacing out I do that all the time. Plus I'm pretty sure he's now terrified of you, so let me go." Jinks sighed and Claudia knew she had won.

After they finished their meal they walked out of the building. Jinks moved to go into the car but stopped when Claudia headed the other way.

"I can drive you to the next place." Jinks shouted out to her. Claudia turned and pointed to the book store. Jinks sighed and drove away to revisit his first person.

Claudia pushed the door open of the used bookstore, that was unsurprisingly empty. Claudia spun around examining the oversized chair reading area and the unorganized front desk. She heard a voice yelling from the back of the store.

"Uh we're just about to close, you can come back tom." Todd stopped midsentence. The pair stood staring at each other for a minute trying to notice all the differences that 2 years had made. Her hair was longer and darker, he had gotten more muscular.

"So the IRS is investigating random attacks done by old people now?" Claudia smiled and looked down.

"I'm pretty sure by now you know I'm not IRS." He nods then walks over to the door to lock it and turn the open sign off. Grabbing her hand he pulls her into the back of the store where an old couch was situated in front of a fireplace.

"So who was that guy." Claudia shrugged off her coat and laughed.

"Well that would be my new overprotective partner."

"Partner for?" he looked at her hopefully.

"Well if you must know I'm an international spy." He rolled his eyes.

"So you're still not going to tell me." She smirked.

"Ok so how did you wind up in the great dairy state?" Todd leaned back against the couch and rested his arm on the top of the couch.

"Well after I left Univille I went to Miami, which for some reason my handlers didn't think Conti would get his drugs from. Anyways they almost got me and then I was moved to this place in Arizona. That worked out the longest about 7 months and then I moved here 5 months after that because they got spooked when they heard about this random shooter in Tucson where I was living. Each place I have been stuck with an extremely boring job and the only company I've had is my cat." He points to a fluffy white cat sleeping in a basket by the fire. Claudia stifles a laugh.

"Aww you're an old cat man." He smiled but then a silence filled the air. "I never stopped looking for you. And Univille has sucked without you, everything got kind of boring. Steve helped keep me sane but I still missed you." Todd wrapped his arms around Claudia.

"I only have 2 more months until the trial. And then after that I'm all yours." She looked up at him before wrapping her arms around his neck and her lips to his. He squeezed her tighter and they feel back into their old rhythm that was until Jinks busted down the wooden back door of the store.

"Claudia!" He comes upon the sight of the two still entangled. Todd looking terrified and Claudia annoyed.

"What are you doing? And I told you he was leering at you." Claudia twists her legs off of Todd's lap and stands up with her hands on her hips.

"HE WASN'T LEERING AT ME WE'RE DATING, I THINK." Steve's mouth drops open.

"You're not lying, and what do you mean I think." Todd straightens his glasses and answers.

"Well I'm kind of in Witness Protection and Claudia and I were-"

"Wait so this is the Todd guy Pete was telling me about?" Todd just sat back looking entirely confused.

"Yes. And why do you all feel the need to converse about my love life. Pete's is much more interesting."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Claudia gave him a withering look that clearly said you idiot.

"Because you weren't supposed to know. That's the point of Witness Protection."

"You told Pete, and apparently everyone else."

"He has a point." Both agents turn to stare at the young man seated on the couch.

"Right sorry. I'm going to go check if the coffee pot is off in the front." He gets off the couch and scurries off to the front.

Claudia stares after him before looking at Steve.

"Please just go. This is the first time I've seen him in 2 years and I kind of want to spend some alone time with him. Got it?" Jinks raises his eyebrows and his hands in defeat.

"Alright just I need help tomorrow and turn on your god damn cell phone next time. That's the reason I came in here." She pulls out her cell and overly acts turning on the ringer.

"Thank you, now I will be off." Jinks leaves through the door in the back promising to fix the lock on it.

"He's gone?" Todd came walking back through the aisles.

"Yeah and he promised to fix the door if he broke it." Claudia stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"So does your apartment happen to be above this shop?" Todd stared down at her and smirked.

"It actually does."

He flicks off the lights as she pulls him to the stairs.


End file.
